In today's inflationary and stressful society, recreational diversions from one's work or school obligations are constantly being sought. However, many of these diversions are increasingly expensive, such as personal home computers, stereo equipment, sports equipment, etc. Many families and individuals are seeking less expensive means of entertainment that can be enjoyed both in and out of the home. For these reasons, puzzles and games which provide stimulating competition to a player are enjoying continuing popularity.
Three dimensional puzzles have existed for a number of years, the early puzzles often being limited by their lack of versatility or competitive complexity. A number of these three dimensional puzzles are available in which the pieces may be assembled in numerous ways to form a single desired polyhedron. Typical of this type of puzzle is that commonly marketed under the trademark "Soma Cube." There are a number of possible solutions, each requiring the use of all the component pieces.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,254 to Marc discloses a three dimensional puzzle having a plurality of components, which when assembled form a polyhedron of a specific volume. Polyhedrons of different volumes may be formed by assembling a quantity of puzzle components less than the total quantity. Although ten component pieces are contained in the puzzle, one puzzle solution utilizes all ten component pieces, another component puzzle solution uses seven specific component pieces from the total of ten provided, and another embodiment is provided wherein only six component pieces of the ten components provided are utilized to provide a puzzle (cubic) solution. One of the drawbacks to the Marc puzzle configuration is that the component pieces are complex in shape indicating that the puzzle will be relatively costly to fabricate and thus, in turn, expensive to the consumer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,065,970 to Besley discloses a puzzle which comprises a plurality of similarly shaped interfitting pieces which can be arranged to form aggregate structures. Each of the pieces are made up of a series of cubes, some of the pieces being relatively complicated to fabricate. As in the Marc patent, certain of the puzzle configurations use less than all of the puzzle pieces.
Other patents which relate to puzzle games or three dimensional assemblies include U.S. Pat. No. 3,546,792 to Sherman; U.S. Pat. No. 3,801,105 to Soubrier; U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,993 to Crosby et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,376 to Tsurumi; U.S. Pat. No. 2,836,421 to Turner; U.S. Pat. No. 2,473,369 to Harris; U.S. Pat. No. 1,455,009 to Schenk; U.S. Pat. No. 1,225,760 to Brown; U.S. Pat. No. 1,100,828 to Heard; and U.S. Pat. No. 1,189,527 to Barnhart.
Although various three dimensional puzzles have been available in the prior art for many years as evidenced by the above referenced patents, it still would be desirable if a three dimensional puzzle which is relatively inexpensive to fabricate and which yet still challenges the interest and skills of puzzle players of various levels of skill, would be provided. Further, it would be desirable and more challenging if all of the component pieces provided in the puzzle are necessary to provide different puzzle solution shapes.